


two kids and six shih tzus

by belligerent (orphan_account)



Series: high school sux [2]
Category: Fantastic Four, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: High School, M/M, Secret Identity, silly boys in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 08:53:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9991121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/belligerent
Summary: "You wouldn't know him," Johnny says. "He's a nerd. He doesn't run in superhero circles. Or, at least, he doesn't know that he does. He's completely oblivious. He doesn't even think that you're all that great."Yikes. Peter has a hater."His name's Peter," Johnny says.





	

**Author's Note:**

> me yesterday: ya lol this will be like 3k  
> me now: ... :)
> 
> tumblr: pupperbee
> 
> also, also: i know that some of the young avengers, in canon, aren't in the group at the same time as others. however i love them all so you get them all together.

"I can buy you a hot dog," Johnny says. He's in his Fantastic Four uniform, and he thinks that he's talking to Spider-Man, not Peter. They're the only ones out at this time of night - on a Wednesday night, not even criminals are around. Thankfully, there's a Teacher Development day tomorrow, so neither of them have to go to school.

 

(Not that Johnny knows that Spider-Man's a high schooler, forget about the fact that they go to the same school.)

 

"If it won't offend your masculinity or something like that. Whatcha like on them? Relish? Mustard?"

 

"Do you take me for an  _animal_?" Peter demands. His voice alterer is itching his cheek, but he refuses to scratch it in fear of turning it off. "Relish is nasty. I just like ketchup on mine, man."

 

The Human Torch looks at Peter as if he's a demon. "You are the most pathetic excuse of a New Yorker in the whole wide world," he's told. "No  _relish_?"

 

"I guess you could say that you aren't really  _relish_ ing in my choice of condiments. Eh? Eh?"

 

"It's a good thing you're cute, Spidey."

 

" _How do you know_ if I'm cute? For all you know I could take my mask off, and I'd just be Shrek. Literal Shrek. Green skin and all."

 

"You'd still be cute, loser, because it's not your face that makes you cute. I don't care what you look like under there, I think you're adorable."

 

Peter blushes bright red.  _Damn this boy,_ he thinks.  _Damn Johnny Storm and his shitty flirting._

 

* * *

 

 

Peter wants to tell Johnny who he is. It feels so unbalanced. He feels like he's taking too much and not giving enough. He knows Johnny's face, he knows Johnny's name, he knows the barely visible scratch under Johnny's lip from two or three or four villains ago. Both Peter and Spider-Man have the privilege of knowing these things, and Johnny has no idea that who he's talking to right now is the boy he sits with at lunch.

 

The words are on the tip of his tongue.  _I want you to know who I am. I want you to know who I am. My name is Peter._

 

Except when he opens his mouth, nothing comes out. He feels something physically blocking his throat, stopping words from spilling out of him. Stopping his best-kept secret from being revealed.

 

At one point, Peter tries to push the words out. "Johnny, I'm-" Except Johnny's talking over him, and Peter's words have been completely drowned.

 

"Why do you keep your identity secret?" Johnny says. He sounds a little awkward, but he forges on. "At first I thought it was just the fact that you don't want to live in the spotlight. But there's more to it than that, right?"

 

Peter blinks. Well, at least they were both thinking about the same topic. "Uh... I don't have the money to be protected when I'm not suited up. I wouldn't be safe, and people who usually would go after me would go after my family."

 

"Besides," he says, lightly, trying to joke it off, "I don't want enemies to see me scared."

 

He means it to be funny, but Johnny just gets quiet.

 

* * *

 

The two words that Peter hates to hear? Partner project.

 

He's been at his new school for about a month now. He was lucky enough to find a friend group that he really likes, because he's been spending almost all of his time with Miles and Miles' friends. They're all really nice, and they all like Peter.

 

Especially Johnny. Johnny warmed to Peter quick as hell. The same Johnny who is currently staring at Peter and making funny faces in an attempt to bring Peter out of his head.

 

"Woah, what?" Peter says. "Sorry, what did you say?"

 

Johnny laughs. It's a nice sound.  _Shut up, Parker, you sound like a rom-com,_ Peter thinks to himself.  _Rom-com, rom-com, rom-com. Your crush is silly and you're a buttword._

 

"Wanna be my partner, cutie?" Johnny asks. His eyebrows waggle and everything. "I can't promise I'll be a good scientist, but I'm the best cut-and-paster that you will ever meet in your life."

 

"Alright, Johnny," Peter says, holding the back of his fingers to his cheek. It's warm. Dammit. "Wanna learn about RNA?"

 

* * *

 

 

Peter has never teamed up with the Young Avengers. For the most part, they do their own thing. The city respects them, even though there are some complaints about the fact that "these kids should just go to school!" Peter doesn't know who the Young Avengers really are, granted, but he supposes that they go to school, too, just like him.

 

The only time he actually sees them face-to-face is when he's still breathing heavily from a fight with the Chameleon, and he runs into the bunch of them all standing together, as if they're waiting for evil to hit them in the face.  _Uh... okay,_ Peter thinks. He feels some dumb, righteous sense of superiority, just because he's been around longer. They're probably the same age, though, so he should stop thinking that.

 

He webs himself close to them and lands neatly behind them. Stature jumps, but the other ones around her seem to have sensed him coming.

 

"Spider-Man," Hawkeye says, voice formal. Peter wonders if she's the leader. "We haven't had the pleasure of meeting. I'm Hawkeye."

 

"Well, you already know who I am," Peter says. "Just, uh, saw you guys around. Is there a villain you're waiting on, or...? I can help."

 

"We don't need your help," Patriot blurts. He seems angry, and something about it seems familiar. Peter can't place it. "We don't need another adult to try and do our job for us."

 

Peter looks at the others, and they seem to be thinking the same thing. "Oh, uh ..."  Should he? Fuck it. "I'm a high schooler."

 

They all look at him, blank, and then Miss America starts cackling. "Oh man! You guys were all like, 'adults suck and Spider-Man's an adult so he sucks,' and then you just ... wow. Iconic, truly. Amazing. I love life."

 

"You guys thought I sucked?" Peter asks, slightly wounded. He doesn't know why he cares. They're just more kids, why should their opinion matter?

 

"We think  _adults_ suck," Stature corrects. "Because all they ever do is try and talk us out of our job. Pardon me if this is rude, Spider-Man, but your voice sounds deeper than a teenager's."

 

"What? Oh!" Peter pulls up his mask a little just to expose a little pale skin on his neck, and pulling down his voice changer that hangs above his lip. He stays silent until he can fix it back in place. "Identity purposes. Changes my voice. Also people react more kindly to voices that are, well..."

 

"Manlier," Miss America says."Because everyone's got a slice of that lovely casual sexism."

 

"That, too," Peter says, and laughs, "but I was thinking more along the lines of 'voices that don't sound like a prepubescent child.'"

 

The Young Avengers seem to be relaxing around him, now that they realize that he's not an adult. He uses the opportunity to ask, "how involved are you guys with the actual Avengers?"

 

"Not very," Hawkeye says. "They're basically the adults we were talking about. They don't want us to do anything, I don't know, dangerous. Which is stupid, because that's our  _job._ "

 

"I wish we got paid for our  _job,_ " Patriot says, mocking her way of talking. Peter wants to tell him that that's not very nice.

 

"The Avengers are decent to me, I guess," Peter says. "Granted, Tony Stark thinks I'm some twenty-something with a dead-end job, not a fif- Oops." He's okay with them knowing the fact that he's in high school, but his exact age? Yikes.

 

However, none of them react badly. They all just laugh or smile at him, not unkindly. "Your secret's safe with us, Spider-Man," Stature says. "If we, the notoriously young superheroes, outed another hero as being our age? It'd be awfully rude, wouldn't it?"

 

"Yeah," Peter agrees. "So, uh, don't be jerkfaces?"

 

"That's the plan."

 

* * *

 

Spider-Man and the Human Torch start fighting bad guys together. Peter totally doesn't start crushing. Shut up.

 

* * *

 

 

"He's just so cool," Johnny says. The others around the table, mainly Kate, (who finally got the guts to join the group, and she fits right in like a final puzzle piece) groan.

 

"We know you have a crush on Spider-Man, Johnny, but do you really have to talk about it, like, every  _three_ seconds?" Kate asks.

 

"It's not every  _three_ seconds," Johnny protests. "At least ten seconds! Maybe nine!" He's joking. "It's not my fault that he's so damn cool, okay?"

 

"Spider-Man's not all that great," Peter blurts out. He doesn't even know why he says it. Miles looks at him with his eyebrow raised and Peter realizes that he probably seems jealous. In a desperate way to make it not seem like that, he tries to divert the conversation: "You know who's so much cooler? The Young Avengers. I think they're really brave, doing what they're doing at such a young age. Spider-Man probably is some old rich white guy who thinks that he can do whatever he wants."

 

For some reason, at the mention of the Young Avengers, half of the group goes bright red. Cassie starts stammering, Billy goes quiet, and America just laughs in that "I know something you don't" tone of hers. Peter's started to recognize it, but he doesn't dare ask her. She scares him a little.

 

"The Young Avengers are awesome," America says, still smiling as if she holds all the secrets of the universe. "I think you're right, Peter. Them being that young  _and_ fighting crime? I don't think that I could do it."

 

Everyone at the table bursts out laughing. Peter tries to ask them what's going on, but they're too busy cracking up to listen.

 

* * *

 

 

"I have a crush on you," the Human Torch tells Spider-Man, when it's so hot outside that summer is just around the corner. Peter aches for vacation, where he can devote more of his time to being Spider-Man and getting sleep.

 

Peter's heart leaps into his throat. However, before he can stutter his way out of this situation, Johnny continues on.

 

"But I don't want to, anymore. I'm gonna get over it. There's this guy at school who I really like. I want to try things with him, not with someone who, no offense, won't even tell me their name."

 

Peter understands, he really does, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt. "Who is it?" he asks. Miles, maybe? Or Eli. Begrudgingly, Peter thinks that Johnny and Miles would probably make a cute enough couple.

 

"You wouldn't know him," Johnny says. "He's a nerd. He doesn't run in superhero circles. Or, at least, he doesn't know that he does. He's completely oblivious. He doesn't even think that you're all that great."

 

Yikes. Peter has a hater.

 

"His name's Peter," Johnny says.

 

The shock settles in quickly, and Peter feels like he goes through all of the stages of grief in half a second. "Oh," he says, because he doesn't know what else he can do.

 

* * *

 

 

When Peter gets invited to the Baxter Building, he agrees wholeheartedly and within seconds. The Baxter Building is, like, science central! He  _has_ to go. Oh golly, what if he gets to meet Dr. Richards?

 

When he voices his excitement to Johnny on the walk to the building, the blond laughs. "Oh man, you're so cute when you're dorky," Johnny says. "My sister is gonna love you. I've told her a lot about you."

 

Peter swallows. "Good things, I hope? How cool I am? How funny I am?"

 

Johnny smiles. "I told her, 'now, Sue, don't embarrass me, because we want Peter to keep coming around, because we like Peter, and those stupid freckles on his face.'"

 

Peter opens his mouth, but shuts it, because that sounds an awful lot like flirting. Before he can think of an answer, a pretty girl with lipstick and winged eyeliner screams and asks Johnny for a picture. Peter offers to take the picture, but Johnny must think that crosses some sort of boundary, because he declines and takes it himself. As Peter watches the two excitedly converse, Peter wonders if this could be  _him._ If he revealed his identity to the world, people might approach him like this.

 

Actually, that's probably not true. Peter's not as universally seen as good, like Johnny is. Over the few months that Peter has been at his new school, his appearances with the Human Torch and some of his more publicized saves have made him more superhero than menace, but some people still think that he's a bad guy.

 

Peter's tired of it. He's been tired of it for a long time. But he's doing good, he  _knows_ he is, so that's all that matters, really. It doesn't matter what they all think, as long as he's saving lives.

 

He knows this, he's always known this, and yet his heart doesn't know it at all.

 

When they finally get to the Baxter Building, Peter spends a minute marveling at the entrance. Without meaning to, he says, "I can never take you to my house."

 

Johnny blinks. "Uh, why?" He sounds confused, not hurt, which is good.

 

Peter, however, doesn't know how to answer. His friends at school don't know much about his home life. They know that he lives with his aunt, and he's mentioned Ben in passing, but never the fact that he was killed. He hasn't even specified that it's just him and his aunt, either. They probably have no idea what he's been through. After a few seconds, he answers, "Uh, nothing, it's just ... you live in the  _Baxter Building,_ dude. I live in an apartment where the stove breaks every other Tuesday."

 

 _Now_ Johnny looks hurt. "You think that matters to me?"

 

"I - no, well, I mean,  _not really,_ but, I didn't  - gah," Peter finishes off. He's not very good at dealing with confrontation.

 

Johnny takes pity on him. "Well, for the record, it  _doesn't,_ " he says. "I give negative fucks. And you know what? I'm gonna meet your aunt and uncle, woo them, and they're gonna like me more than they like you."

 

"Uh, about that," Peter says, half because he wants Johnny to know, and half because he's still procrastinating going into the Baxter Building and meeting his  _idols._ His excitement has turned into nerves. "My uncle got shot. Right before all the superheroes came onto the scene. It's just me and my aunt now. Why we moved."

 

Johnny deflates. Peter prepares himself for an awkward  _I'm sorry._ What he gets instead is: "Is that why you don't like Spider-Man? Because he wasn't there?"

 

Peter suddenly wants to avoid this conversation with all he has. "Something like that. Now, c'mon, aren't you gonna introduce me to your cool family?"

 

* * *

 

Sue Storm is witty and intelligent, Reed is serious and mathematically-minded, and Ben is hilarious and a little terrifying.

 

These are Peter's first impressions, anyway.

 

As they sit around the dinner table eating some pasta that Reed has injected with  _something,_ Ben won't stop cracking jokes, and Peter has to make an effort not to choke on his food. Peter tries to focus on Johnny's family but he keeps looking back at Johnny. It's hard to look away.

 

Reed and Peter briefly discuss genetics once Peter casually brings up his father's old occupation. Ben and Johnny look at each other, and Ben says "these  _dorks_ and their  _science,_ " as if he isn't a scientist, too.

 

All three of them warm up to Peter, easy. So much that by the end of the conversation, Peter's comfortable enough to throw out a "I've gotta pee, where's your bathroom?" Johnny points him to "his personal bathroom" down the hall.

 

Peter thinks it's bizarre. These rich people with their  _own bathrooms._

 

 _..._ Peter opens the bathroom door, and immediately shuts his eye at how much of an eyesore it is. There's too much orange, and too much red - Peter's eyes hurt. When he opens them again, the first thing he focuses on is the fact that Johnny has a toilet seat cover that has cartoon flames on it.

 

Peter can't believe this, except for the fact that he totally can. He feels like his bladder has suddenly gone  _no thanks_ at the sight of the ugly cover.

 

If Peter had enough money to blow on a toilet seat cover, he  _wouldn't._

 

While he, ah, takes care of business, he tries not to let his hearing reach out to where the Fantastic Four is. Eavesdropping is bad, and Peter knows it's bad, and yet -

 

"I don't understand what you're waiting for," Sue Storm says. Peter can't tell who she is saying it to. "He seems so smitten with you. Don't let this opportunity go, okay? Before you know it, he'll be dating some other cute boy. Like Miles Morales." Peter realizes that they're talking about him.

 

"It's not that easy," Johnny huffs. Peter understands. He's in the same boat. He knows Johnny likes him back, and yet ... Yet he has no intention of starting anything with Johnny. Not when he's Spider-Man.

 

"I'll do it eventually," Johnny continues. "But I can't right now, okay?"

 

Peter prepares himself to pretend that he doesn't have superhearing.

 

* * *

 

 

Spider-Man and the Human Torch stop teaming up. Peter feels like he's losing something, but he's not even sure what he's losing. He's trading the Human Torch for Johnny Storm, and he didn't even mean to. This would all have been avoided if he had just  _told Johnny._

 

But he didn't, and he can't. So Peter shuts up and is reminded of how it felt to go on patrols alone.

 

* * *

 

"No dick jokes," Peter says. "And no flirting with me, because she'll think that we're dating and I'm lying to her. And no smirks where your face looks really cute, because that's just uncalled for."

 

"What, you want me to go in there and be a robot?" Johnny says. "And you can't tell me not to flirt with you and then flirt with me five seconds later. That's not how it works."

 

Peter's ears feel warm. "I wasn't - I was - shut up."

 

Peter knocks on the door to his apartment, and briefly closes his eyes. This is it. This is the two most important people in his life meeting.

 

Aunt May opens the door and immediately beams at both of them. She goes in to hug Johnny. "Oh, Johnny, Peter talks about you so much that I feel like I already know you."

 

Johnny does that annoying smirk that Peter has  _just_ declared off-limits, like, three seconds ago. "You talk about me a lot, huh, Peter?"

 

"Shut - shu - shush," Peter says. Aunt May looks at him as if she can read his mind.

 

Fantastic. Everything he was trying to avoid.

 

Aunt May used to not be a very good cook, to be honest, but Peter has never complained. However, when Ben died, she started cooking more, learning how to use spices better, and reading cookbooks as if they were a Bible. Her food is actually really good now, and Peter's pleased. Sometimes when he gets money from cash-in-hand jobs or academic competitions, he'll buy food that's usually a little out of their price range for her to cook, and they're the best meals that he's ever had.

 

They don't have everything. But they have enough.

 

Peter tries to follow Johnny's line of sight as he checks out the apartment. Luckily, Peter doesn't notice him linger on the peeling wallpaper or the broken door handle.  _Johnny must not be as shallow as the other rich people,_ Peter thinks. 

 

Johnny woos Aunt May as if he's trying to get her blessing for Peter's hand in marriage. He compliments her cooking dozens of times, talks about how cool and smart Peter is, and, surprisingly, doesn't talk about being the Human Torch once. Peter wonders if he ever gets tired of it.

 

Actually, now that Peter thinks about it, Johnny doesn't actually ever talk about being the Human Torch. He does when he's around Miles and their other friends, but when it's just the two of them? It's almost like they're both just two normal teenagers. He wonders if there's a reason behind it.

 

Aunt May tells Johnny the story of the broken door handle with laughter in her voice. "Peter got so  _angry,_ " she says, completely joyous.

 

Oh, jeez, not this story. "May," Peter whines, and shoves some cauliflower in his mouth to hide his embarrassment.

 

"So he  _slams the door,_ " she says. "First of all, the glass completely shattered-"

 

" _Peter,_ " Johnny says, surprised. "I didn't even know you were that strong."

 

"Me neither," Peter murmurs around his food, like an imbecile. It was when he'd first gotten his powers, and he'd had all of this strength that he hadn't known what to do with.

 

"So Ben and I just stare at the door, mouths wide open in  _shock,_ and three seconds later, the door handle just gives up and clatters to the floor. It was like Peter was 'dropping the mic.' That's something popular nowadays, right?"

 

" _May,_ " Peter whines again. "You're embarrassing me."

 

She looks at him and grins. "I know, dear," she says. She goes on to tell more embarrassing stories, but she looks happy, so he doesn't complain.

 

(Later, she asks him why he didn't tell her that he has a boyfriend. Peter face-plants a pillow and whines. She finally gets the hint by asking, "When are you going to ask him out?" Jeez. Moms are wild.)

 

* * *

 

 

"Peter, what the hell," America says around her ice cream cone. "How do you even  _eat ice cream so fast?_ Didn't you get a brain freeze?"

 

Peter laughs. "It's magic," he says. It's not - it's just an advanced metabolism paired together with his powers not letting him have brain freezes anymore. Add that to the bottomless pit of a stomach that any teenager has, and Peter's good to go.

 

Kate is a particularly slow eater, so she dutifully hands her coffee ice cream to Peter for consumption. He narrows his eyes briefly, wondering if this is some ploy to get him to eat more - (he's been limiting himself to smalls in everything, even though all of his friends have all offered to buy him food multiple times. Even a few cents can add up to Aunt May having dinner.) "No, really," Kate says. "I'm stuffed."

 

Peter scowls at her as he takes the cone and chomps his teeth into it.

 

"That's painful to watch," Teddy says. "I got a brain freeze just looking at you."

 

Peter raises his hand to wipe coffee ice cream off of his lip when his Spidey sense starts shrieking. He stiffens and almost drops his cone when he hears a loud  _crash_ behind him. He turns to see the a villain that he's never fought before, since it's always been the Young Avengers' fight - Kang the Conquerer. But since he's here, he needs to help.

 

Weirdly enough, his friends look surprised but they're still put together. Peter opens his mouth to say,  _guys, let's get out of here,_ but they're already talking.

 

"Get Peter somewhere safe,  _now,_ " Kate says to Teddy. Her voice is sharper, more authoritative, and Peter immediately freezes. He knows that voice. How does he know that voice ...?

 

Teddy, the lumbering softie, grips Peter's arm and tugs him away. He's being gentle, but he's such a strong kid that Peter has to fight the instinct to shake him off. If he can get away from Teddy, he can change into his suit and fight the bad guy. That's what he does best.

 

They end up in front of a subway station, and Teddy hands Peter his MetroCard. Peter's never needed his own student card since he lives so close to his school - however it means that for trips like this, he needs to pay out of his wallet.

 

"Get somewhere safe," Teddy says, kind as ever. "I'm going back for Billy, okay? We'll text you when we're safe."

 

Peter agrees and promises to pay Teddy back for the fare he uses on the MetroCard. He watches Teddy disappear back into the street before going down the stairs.

 

There aren't many people in the station, just a woman and her child descending down the stairs and the woman behind the service booth, though she's on her phone and not paying attention. Peter thinks hard, and knows that he won't have anywhere safe to suit up down here. 

 

So Peter goes back up to the street level, and hopes to God that he can find somewhere with a bathroom that he can web the cameras of, or something.  A Starbucks, a kids bookstore, a HomeGoods ... Starbucks is probably his best bet. He hopes that there's a safe place in there, he hopes so hard -

 

Except Peter's Spidey sense pulses. Kang the Conquerer is heading towards the group of civilians that Peter is a part of, poor civilians that haven't gotten out of the street yet. The guy is murmuring something - "If I change the course of history, if I  _attack_ , I will be respected in my century for the first time in a long time. If I am  _feared ..._ "

 

Peter forgets that he's not supposed to be Spider-Man. "Everybody get out of here, move," he tells to the civilians. "Get underground or indoors - get away from this guy!"

 

Except, before anyone can do as he says, a shake goes through the street and his frickin' Spidey sense is going off  _again,_ and it's so consistent and loud that it  _aches,_ but he can't do anything about it, not with all these cameras around. It takes every fiber of his being to not run away as the Conquerer knocks him and the other civilians down. Peter suspects that if he had not had superpowers, he would have been knocked out immediately, but something is helping him hang on. His head  _whacks_ the cement, hard, and Peter feels something liquid behind his head, forming right where it hurts. Maybe he landed in a puddle or something.

 

Peter hears a shout, and all of a sudden Hawkeye is standing over him. "Oh God, oh God, oh no, no," she says, and she doesn't sound like Hawkeye. She sounds like -

 

"Kate?" Peter whispers, and passes out.

 

* * *

 

 

Peter wakes up to voices. A masculine voice, deep and panicked, says, "I don't give a  _fuck_ if he hates hospitals, he's bleeding from his damn head, we're taking him to one."

 

"We both know they can't afford it," another voice says. "Look, I'll call his aunt. She can treat him, she's a nurse."

 

"I don't agree. We all know what it's like having to treat someone you  _love_ _-_ "

 

* * *

 

Peter wakes up in his bed, and his head hurts. It's fading fast, barely even there anymore, but it still hurts.

 

There's a note on his pillow that he must have rolled on in his sleep. It looks to be in Cassie's handwriting, or maybe America's. The note reads:

 

_We're sorry we didn't tell you. Call us when you wake up - but not Billy because his phone's dead. We're all treating you to a sorry-your-life-got-endangered dinner._

 

Peter squints. What didn't they tell him? Why does his head hurt? Why-

 

 _Oh._ It all comes back at once. Kang the Conquerer. Hawkeye sounding like Kate. His friends arguing over him in the car.

 

Jesus. That's what Johnny had meant about Peter being in superhero circles. He's friends with the damn Young Avengers.

 

He's going to come clean, too. But there's someone that he has to tell first.

 

Peter doesn't call.

 

* * *

 

The security at the Baxter Building know him well enough that they just let him in. His backpack lies heavy on his back, even though the only thing it contains is the light fabric of his suit. The receptionist smiles at him and greets him by name. He might as well be family.

 

The elevator has frickin'  _background music._ It's such a rich people thing that Peter finds it bizarre - the elevators at he and Aunt May's apartment building break down all the time and for some reason always have thick brown padding over the walls.

 

Sue opens the door to the living quarters, and looks slightly surprised to see him, but still pleased. "Peter! I didn't know you were coming over?"

 

"Me neither," Peter says, awkward. He rushes on. "Is Johnny here?"

 

Sue must mistake his nervousness as about to give a confession. She's not entirely long, since he  _is_ going to confess something, but not what she thinks. "Yeah, sweetheart," she says, smiling big, "he's here."

 

She tells him to meet Johnny in his room and says to keep the door open. Peter blushes at the implications.

 

Johnny's sitting cross-legged on his bed, doing some last-minute homework that Peter did last week. Even though school is almost over for the year, their teachers still give them ungodly amounts of work. Johnny looks up at the sound of the door opening and makes a confused noise when he sees who it is.

 

"Peter?" he asks, confused, scrambling off of the bed. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming over?"

 

Peter swallows. Now or never. He can't show up all dramatically at his crush's house not to say what he came here to say. "I need to tell you something," Peter says. His knees are shaking.

 

Johnny's face turns into something hopeful, something happy. "I have something to tell you, too."  _Stop being cute for just one minute, Johnny Storm._

 

"Not that," Peter says, but adds quickly before Johnny can deflate, "Well, I mean, there's that too, because I really  _really_ like you, Johnny, but that's not why I'm here."

 

"Whatever it is, it won't change anything,"  Johnny says, bright and happy and looking like he's on top of the whole wide world. "You and I are gonna get married and have two kids and six Shih Tzus, and it's gonna be great, and-"

 

"I'm Spider-Man," Peter blurts out. Before he can talk himself out of it, he unzips his backpack and dumps the contents over the floor. His mask lies face-up, staring at Johnny.

 

Johnny blinks a few times, but he doesn't seem to get it. "Are you a cosplayer?" he asks.

 

Peter runs out of patience within two seconds, so he webs Johnny's hand to the wall.

 

"You're not a cosplayer," Johnny says. His brain is taking an awful long time to process this, Peter thinks. "You're Spider-Man." 

 

Johnny doesn't take long to panic. "Oh my God, you've known about my crush on you  _forever_? I've had a crush on you  _twice_! I told you about how I had a crush on you! I had a crush on both of you at the same time! You know all my secrets!"

 

Peter feels tears well up in his eyes. He blames it on PMS. "Are you mad?" he asks, and his voice cracks as if he's going through puberty again.

 

Johnny must realize that he's scaring Peter. "No," he says. "I'm not mad. I understand."

 

Peter kisses him.

 

* * *

 

 

Peter finally gets around to calling. Kate picks up and is frantic. "I called your aunt and you weren't there, you didn't call us, I thought you hated us for lying, Peter -"

 

"I'm not mad and I don't hate you," Peter promises. "I just have something to tell you guys, too."

 

* * *

 

 

He tells everyone while holding Johnny's hand. Everyone is quiet for a second, but then America starts laughing. Everyone follows suit.

 

**Author's Note:**

> p.s. i've never written any of the young avengers before, so lmk if i'm a bit off for any of how they talk/act/etc, and i can try and do better next time! be nice tho or ill cry


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